Embracing my Inner Wrestler

It's Embrace the Camera time! 

18 months is such a fun age!  Those fun "boy" characteristics are really starting to come out and he loves to roughhouse.  We're working on a wrestling name...maybe "Little Leveler" or "Gumshoe Grappler"...what do you think?

Embrace the camera, won't you? Click on the button and join in!

Have You Heard...

About Birchbox??

Well...lucky for you, my Birchbox came in the mail yesterday.  Why lucky for you?  Because if it hadn't, I would be posting about the fake balls that some guys hang from the backs of their trailer hitches...have you seen those?  Ugh.  Disgust!  Don't worry though...I have a whole post brewin' in my noggin about that one!

OK-back to Birchbox.  You can learn more about it here.  In short, you sign up for the $10/month subscription and each month Birchbox sends out deluxe beauty samples for you to try out. In cute little packaging, too!  And if you're looking for a unique and fun gift idea...you can gift in 3, 6, and 12 month increments.  I gifted it for my sissies and Gumshoe overheard me delicately pounding the idea into his skull and got it for me.  

It makes us gals who buy the majority of our clothes, accessories, shoes, jewelry makeup at Target feel all posh inside.  Enough jibber-jabber...here's what I got this month:

Zoya nail polish in a chic violet/gray

Suki exfoliating foaming cleanser

Zhena's Gypsy Tea: caffeine free herbal tea with chamomile, hibiscus, lemon and vanilla

Ooh...a surprise

Waleda Wild Rose Smoothing Facial Lotion and LIV GRN Perfume

This box had a "green theme" for April.  So fun!  Can't wait to try 'em out!  

Here's what came last month:

The brow brush at the bottom I now use everyday and this box also came with Pangea Organics face mask, Pangea Organics lip balm, Befine night cream, Pomega 5 moisturizing face treatment and Marvis Italian toothpaste.  I mean, why use Crest when the Italians are making fancy toothpaste?  Oh...now I remember...because the Italian toothpaste is $12 a tube.  Is it even FDA approved, you ask?  Psh...whateva!  That's not the point.  It's European and glamorous, 'kay?


Check it out...it's so much fun!
 

Weekend in Pictures

This weekend could be best summed up in 3 words...teething, tantrums and termites.

After getting estimates on a new roof, discovering termites the next day and then having the termite inspector discover a leaking water heater...we decided the weekend should start with this:

LG must have been teething this weekend...he was a stage 5 cling-on...but only to Gumshoe. Anytime I tried to take him...he shunned me :)

This actually proved to be beneficial as I was able to get away and do a little shopping...

We dropped by Nana and PopPop's:

PopPop trying to coax LG with a cookie

Don't have to twist his arm

Played with the wind chimes...LG's favorite

Paused for a pick...

Then...the day of tantrums.  We went to church where LG lasted for only 10 minutes in the nursery before his number came flashing up on the big screen for us to go get him.  We went over for Sunday dinner at Grandma and Grandpa's where his stellar mood continued...

How about that family pic, huh? Perfect candidate for the Christmas card this year...don't you agree?

Needless to say...our weekend ended with an early bedtime for LG!

You Know You Married a Cop When...

Image via

A simple conversation about where to go on a family jog goes something like this:

Me: "Which trail should we take this afternoon?"

Gumshoe: "I don't know...which one do you want to go on?"

Me: "We could go on the neighborhood trail..."

Gumshoe: "Nah...I'm sick of that one and I'm sick of seeing every crummy code-violation-filled house along the way."

Me: "Okay...how about the trail through the corporate park...that one is beautiful."

Gumshoe: "Nope!  That one's a downer for me."

Me: "Why?  What's wrong with that one-it's my favorite!"

  *Why I thought I would be getting a "normal" response to this question...I have no idea but his answer went something like this:

Gumshoe:  "I'm always getting called out there because people are offing themselves in parked cars."

*Long, thoughtful pause where I came up with this gem:

Me: "uh...er...hmmm...okay."

  

Well, Gumshoe...I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to take a nice leisurely jog on that trail.  And thanks to that only slightly macabre visual...I will be finding a new favorite trail as well.

Hope your weekend is fun-filled and doesn't involve any macabre running trails...or chalk outlines!

Embracing the Archives...

It's that time again...

And for this Embrace the Camera, I decided to reach back into the Gumshoe's extensive archives to share with you one of our most prized pictures.  LG had just learned to smile and we happened to catch his biggest grin on camera.  In fact, I don't think he's ever smiled this big since.  (Pay no mind to the mama wearing the fug sweatshirt!)

Thinking about it...

Almost...

Ahhhhh...there it is!

It's nice to remember pics like these because I seem to be getting a lot of this lately...

Farm Animals? Ugh...Boooring!

If LG could say more than three words, I think that's about how he'd sum up our momentous trip to the petting zoo this afternoon.

Gumshoe surprised us and came home early today, so we decided to spend the afternoon at the amazing Children's Farmstead in our area.  It's such a neat place and we've never taken LG, so we were looking forward to seeing his reaction to all the animals that up until now, he's only seen in books.  For sure, we thought, he's gonna be so excited to get up close to all the farm animals!  And if by "farm animals" we meant "rocks and gravel", then yes...he was very excited!

Sidenote: I am fully aware of the nerd-factor of rolled tube socks and sneakers in the summer, but whenever I get within a 150mi radius of LG with sandals in hand, he sobs...so...hmmmm?

First we checked out the cows

Then we moved on to the goats

Next came the horses

Then back to the goats where we were more excited about this..
(pause music at bottom of blog to hear jazzy video)

So we moved on to the dairy barn to watch the cow get milked, but that proved to be too boring for LG.  I mean, why milk a cow when there's gravel to be scooped up? 

Half-hearted smile outside the dairy barn

Followed by a downright sneer in our general direction...

Topped off by his first ever stomp-out

And as we were leaving...a small tantrum!  Enjoy :)

Weekend in Pictures

We had another weekend full of beautiful weather here and we played it pretty low key...

Gumshoe deemed this weekend "Smoke-fest 2011"

I deemed this weekend "Stop babysitting the smoker and please help me clean the garage"...

...6 hours later.  I know...6 hours...don't ask

I think 5 1/2 hours were spent untangling THESE

The results of "Smoke-fest 2011".  Throw in some awesome neighbors, potato salad, baked beans and these...

awesome-neighbor-cupcakes

A rare morning of sleeping in

Getting loosened up for our daily family walk/jog

During which I got pooped on...it was worse than it looked, 'kay?  Traumatic, actually.

We checked out some buffalo along the way

From the cheap seats

We celebrated this guy's b-day

We got adventurous and did some rock climbing

Then we ate some more meat

And finally...an epic battle between man and ant.  Hopefully man will prevail!

Hope you had a relaxing, beautiful and ant-free weekend!